Jamie Vardy right to snub Arsenal and remain at Premier League champions after English football was turned on its head

The popular perception is that Jamie Vardy is one of the biggest bottle jobs in the history of football but Neil Ashton backs the striker's decision to stay loyal to Foxes

By NEIL ASHTON, SunSport columnist

23rd June 2016, 9:28 pm

Updated: 23rd June 2016, 11:18 pm

THE popular perception is that Jamie Vardy is one of the biggest bottle jobs in the history of football.

When a club with Arsenal’s trappings come calling, the world of football tells you to walk on broken glass to get there.

Getty Images

Jamie Vardy fired Leicester to the Premier League title last season

PA:Press Association

Claudio Ranieri worked wonders with the Foxes and is trying to keep squad together

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Arsene Wenger missed out on one of his major summer targets

Those days are gone. The Premier League landscape has been changed by one remarkable season.

Vardy has made the right call here, he really has.

He is the main man at Leicester, the face of a football club that shook the world by overcoming odds of 5,000-1 to win the Premier League last term.

Vardy, who scored 24 times in their title-winning campaign, is on to a good thing at the King Power.

The hard bit would be to leave all that behind. To call Claudio Ranieri and tell him that the next time they meet he would be wearing the colours of the Premier League’s second best team.

Richard Pelham

Vardy scored in England's win over Wales after a stunning season with Leicester

To watch the Champions League draw on August 25 and realise that he must root for red, not blue.

To pack up his Premier League title winner’s medal and to become part of a dressing-room culture taking selfies every time they win a game.

Vardy has made the right choice, loyal to the Leicester cause when Arsenal came calling.

The London club have the pedigree and the allure but Leicester’s fairytale season and unexpected title triumph has tugged at his heart strings.

His decision to stay at Leicester is a big setback for Arsenal.

Everything — contract, salary, playing position — had been agreed with Arsene Wenger by the time England beat Portugal 1-0 at Wembley on June 2. Wenger was in the stands, privately confident Arsenal were about to announce their second major signing of the summer — after midfielder Granit Xhaka.

Vardy was on his way to the Emirates, we know that.

But that was until Leicester’s players got into his head, hammering away at his phone and pleading with him to keep the faith — and get involved in another chapter of this great story.

They reminded him of that glorious May night at his home in Melton Mowbray when Tottenham’s 2-2 draw at Chelsea confirmed them as champions of England. A night of joy that they will all remember for years to come.

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Now he can finally concentrate fully on his summer job, which is to keep the national team at Euro 2016.

Vardy had a spring in his step during England’s open training session yesterday, the sort of bounce you get after another big pay rise. The next stop is Nice, when Roy Hodgson’s side face Iceland in a last-16 game they simply have to win.

Vardy’s proposed move to Arsenal has not been ideal for England, a massive distraction for one of the most important players in the squad.

He is here to fire the bullets, to put the opposition away in the same way he did 24 times for Leicester last season.

The to-ing and fro-ing of a potential move as big as this is a major distraction.

For Vardy, for England, for Hodgson.

But that’s over. Everything must be on England now. He has scored once, the equaliser against Wales, but even the head coach has conceded that he expected more from his forwards.

The inner turmoil, the calls from back home, the constant questions about his future would place a strain on anybody

He is in France for one job and has been thinking about another.

EPA

Foxes striker will hope to start against Iceland in the last 16

This situation is not a million miles away from Steven Gerrard at Euro 2004, when his head turned to mush at the prospect of leaving Liverpool.

Jose Mourinho, who had just arrived at Chelsea after winning the Champions League with Porto, wanted him at Stamford Bridge.

The Special One was in his ear throughout the tournament.

Texts, calls, and the persuasive tones of the four Chelsea boys — John Terry, Frank Lampard, Wayne Bridge and Joe Cole in the England squad.

Then the fans got into him, reminding him of his ties to the club who nurtured him as a schoolboy.

Vardy’s association with Leicester goes back to 2012, when they took a risk by spending £1million to sign him from Fleetwood.

Four years on and he has just turned down the world’s seventh biggest football club.